A set of studies on expectation and fantasy revealed some important findings. There were four studies.

The first study focused on graduates looking for a job. The second study focused on students with a romantic crush. The third study focused on students getting ready to take an exam. The fourth study focused on patients getting hip-replacement surgery.

The study found that positive expectations helped reach a desired goal. Meanwhile positive fantasy made it harder for a person to reach their goal. Fantasizing about a future may only serve as a distraction and make it harder to reach.

“…people who had told themselves “Not now, but later” were less troubled with visions of chocolate cake than the other two groups… Those in the postponement condition actually ate significantly less than those in the self-denial condition…”

Teachers used harder fonts on their slides, and handouts. Later they photocopied hand written work and blurred a bit. The teachers then used on class as the control group, giving them the perfect and not hard to read copies.

The other class were given harder reading material:

-12-point Comic Sans

-12-point Bodoni.

The big finding was that students with harder font answered 86.5% of questions correctly.

The other group, with the clear text scored 72.8% on the same test.

This is because we use our brains a little more on hard material, making us have a better understanding.